For the first time, Pacific and
Caribbean voices were heard at an International Food Policy
Research Institute conference – and it won’t be the
last.

Asked why the Pacific and Caribbean regions
had not been included before, Chief of staff and conference
director Rajul Pandya-Lorch says IFPRI are mandated to work
where there is the greatest concentration of
populations.

However, through the support of The
Technical Centre of Rural and Agricultural Co-operation
(CTA), a Pacific and Caribbean delegation of private sector,
civil agencies and government sector were able to attend the
conference in Ethiopia themed on “Building Resilience for
Food and Nutrition and Security”.

“Each of the
conferences builds on including more actors,” says
Pandya-Lorch. “We saw that with the South Asia conference
where this time when we announced this conference, we got an
immediate phone call from South Asia with an organization
wanting to run a side event.

“That’s why CTA
with their experience and networks are so important. And we
would hope to amplify that participation at the next
conference.”

This year’s conference attracted
more than 800 participants – 300 more than Pandya-Lorch
had anticipated – as well as 21 side events, twice the
number of the last conference hosted in Delhi.

CTA
sponsored a side event with a high-level Pacific and
Caribbean panel to discuss “Enhancing resilience for food
and nutrition security in small island economies”. Chaired
by CTA director Michael Hailu, the panel also included Gyan
Acharya, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative
for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing
Countries and Small Island Developing States.

The key
themes that emerged from the panel was: higher consumption
of locally grown produce contributed to better health;
farmers needed to own more of the value chain to become more
productive and profitable; and that there needed to be more
co-operation within and between the two regions.

Gibson Susumu, Food Security Technical Officer at the
Secretariat of the Pacific Community, says the Pacific
Islands are not often engaged with international research
organisations.

“There needs to extra support so
our voices can be heard, and so we can get the support we
need to meet our challenges especially with respect to food
security.”

Susumu says the Pacific also has
successful research that can assist other international
researchers.

“I was sitting at session earlier and
in some ways we are already ahead in some research areas.
For example, we are already trialling climate resilient
crops at the community level in different countries, which
is just being discussed in one of the sessions,” says
Susumu. “Our small scale allows us to go from research
trial to implementation quite quickly.

“However,
we recognize that we need to continue to boost research
capacity in the region.”

He added that there are
success stories in the region that needed to be scaled
up.

Maurice Wilson is the head of the Resource
Mobilisation, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the
Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute.
CARDI operates by mandate of the heads of the Caribbean
Commonwealth countries

Wilson says the IFPRI
conference focuses on resilience for food security and that
is basis of the work done at CARDI.

“Being at this
conference allows us to connect with other institutions and
share information. It is essential that we do this because
these institutions work in regions within which crop
varieties may demonstrate tolerance to pests and diseases.
These varieties may be tested and validated for adoption
within the Caribbean.”

He adds that collaboration
between the Caribbean and Pacific has been increasing over
the past two years and is being strengthened by the EU
Intra-ACP Agricultural Policy Programme.

Other
research institutions also stand to benefit as the Caribbean
and Pacific share their experiences and knowledge, according
to Wilson.

“We see great advantages in forging
relationships and networking with potential donor sources,
partners, and collaborators.”

Conference director
Pandya-Lorch says IFPRI stage each conference to be a
catalyst. “You see this momentum. I feel we contribute by
bringing these actors together to have informal
conversations.”

Among the speakers on the
programme are a spread of international agricultural and
development agencies. There are also multi-national private
sector players such as Nestle and DuPont.

Pandya-Lorch says private sector needs to have “the
space to engage” and move the conversations forward. She
adds that corporate social investment aside; change needs to
occur at the core business level.

“We design the
conference to break barriers, share knowledge, hopes, and
experiences across actors and disciplines. People go home
and things more, less, differently, better.”

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